Python Cryptography Library Maintainers Express Concerns About OpenSSL's Development Direction
By
SGran
Front-window bakery material. Catches the eye, delivers the goods.
Summary
The Python cryptography library maintainers (pyca/cryptography) detail their growing concerns with OpenSSL's development direction after 12 years of dependency. They presented at the OpenSSL Conference about significant problems they've encountered, including OpenSSL's increasing complexity, API instability, and questionable architectural decisions. The maintainers argue that OpenSSL's mistakes have become so substantial that either OpenSSL needs to change or they must reconsider their reliance on it for core cryptographic algorithms.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledFor the past 12 years, we (Paul Kehrer and Alex Gaynor) have maintained the Python cryptography library (also known as pyca/cryptography or cryptography.io). For that entire period, we've relied on OpenSSL to provide core cryptographic algorithms.
This talk focuses on the growing problems we have with OpenSSL's direction.
The mistakes we see in OpenSSL's development have become so significant that we believe substantial changes are required — either to OpenSSL, or to our reliance on it.
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